Oh, he's everywhere, Carol said. He's not just here.

I looked up from my coffee and took a moment to listen to the nearby conversation.

Really, Greg asked, I thought he was just something people here. conversation. And it just depends on where you are. So in fast food places, they say he lives in the deep fat friar,

but generally people say he lives somewhere high risk.

So around here he lives in the boxes and the high shelves.

The story changes a lot, but the message is the same.

Be careful. Don't put your hand in broken machine parts. Don't try cleaning the friar without

supervision. Be careful what you take down from the shelves.

Oh, so it's like a safety thing?

Yeah, Carol answered.

It's to discourage noobies from grabbing random boxes without looking at the labels.

Do you know how many injuries we get because some idiot tries taking a set of weights down

from the high shelf thinking he was a box full of blankets?

I thought it was just a good way to prank new people.

Greg mused. Well, there's that too. Carol smirked.

Do you remember when Alec over there lost his watch?

Both faces turned to me. I think at this stage I was supposed to laugh, but I

remembered the event vividly and I didn't find it funny.

It was just that the whole floor had roared at me with laughter, and it wasn't even the sense

of total helplessness I felt when I realized my supervisor, who up until then had been completely supportive was

in on the joke. It was just that when I'd grabbed the watch and pulled up, something had caught my hand and it felt like someone was in there

pulling me down. And for a brief moment in time, I believed in Mr. Tatler, and I believed he'd come for me and no one was going to help me.

...